So far in 2024, El Salvador has exported $77.6 million in capacitors manufactured by Kyocera AVX.
The Salvadoran Association of Industrialists (ASI) said Tuesday that four out of seven capacitors used worldwide are manufactured in El Salvador.
The president of the ASI, Jorge Arriaza, said that the electronic sector is one of the resources that can bring benefits for El Salvador in the future.
The trend goes to other types of products that could be two, electronic, we have an important factory here as a capacitor, which are the ones that are used for computers, four out of seven that are used in the world are produced in El Salvador,” Arriaza said in the interview of Front to Front.
The manufacture of capacitors or chips is exclusive to the companyKyocera AVX.The company has been operating in El Salvador for more than 40 years and in 2023 was responsible for $193.1 million exported in electrical capacitors.
The factory has been located in the free zone of San Bartolo, Ilopango, since 1977.
The Central Reserve Bank (BCR) notes that in the first six months of 2024 $77.6 million were exported in fixed, variable or adjustable electric capacitors, 20 per cent less than the same period of 2023, when $97 million was sent.
According to the BCR registry, the United States acquires 99.8 percent of all condensers that El Salvador produces.
Automotive sector
Among the niches that can be usable in El Salvador is also the automotive, benefited from the nearshoring that Mexico experiences.
Arriaza noted that different parts of vehicles are produced in the country, such as automotive cables. These are sent to Mexico, benefiting from the mobilization of U.S. companies to the north side of their territory.
A company that produces air bags is already being installed, by the time the accidents occur, also to be able to send it to Mexico, Arriaza added.
According to the ISA, the textile and clothing, food and pharmaceutical sectors are the main ones driving exports from the industrial sector.
Growth of the sector
The president of the ASI recalled that the industrial sector has seen a decrease since 2022. To date, they add upeight quarters in contraction.
Last year, the BCR confirmed a decline in the manufacturing industry of a3.4 %. In the first quarter of 2024 the sector remained in red numbers with a3.94 %.
The union said the US consumer diverted attention from its shopping last year to food and stopped buying textiles. The situation also influenced the levels of inflation perceived around the world.
Now we’re in a line of starting to reverse that trend, and we hope this year to hope to be positive. We have the figure for the first quarter, which is already less negative and, according to the Central Bank, it is an upward trend, where there is an increase in markets like that of the United States, added the president of the ISA.
Industrialists hope that the freedom of movement of products in the Central American North Triangle – made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – will benefit local entrepreneurs.
Arriaza points out that the increase of the U.S. economy, nearshoring from Mexico, and the North Triangle market will support reversing the decline of the Salvadoran industrial sector.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo